Doing it the Hard Way

There are many reasons the average believer does not consistently share his faith with unsaved people within his sphere of influence:

• We (might feel we) work in environments where we think that to share our faith could harm our camaraderie or promotions;

• Our(friends, family, and) classmates would ridicule us as being too holy for modern sensibilities;

• We are not sure that we would have answers to questions raised by a non-Christian

or

We are just plain scared.1

1.Eric Redmond, William Curtis, and Ken Fentress, Exalting Jesus in Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk (Nashville, TN: Holman Reference, 2016), 3.

Today, we met Jonah. And we heard that Jonah was a prophet. As a Prophet - his primary role was to share God’s word with the people so they might repent, turn their lives around and follow God. This was all good and fine until the day God spoke to Jonah. Suddenly, God wanted Jonah to to leave his home and his people and travel to Nineveh where God wanted him to call the people there to repent. But Instead of obeying, Jonah decided to run away.

Let’s talk about Nineveh for a moment. Why would Jonah have gone to such measures to avoid what sound like the same thing he had been doing already? Understand that the people of Nineveh were Assyrians. And they Assyrians had been in conflict with the Hebrew people for many decades before Jonah - and ultimately, it will continue after Jonah. So when God asked Jonah to go to these people - his enemy and his peoples’ enemy for as long as he can remember - it makes it a little easier to understand his actions. More so - the Ninevites were known to be an extremely violent people. They would brutally torture those who went against their beliefs or stood up against their power. Now, Jonah has been asked to go to them, tell them of their sin and call them to repent. It sounds like an unwinnable battle.

So, Jonah ran for his life. In his mind it was his only choice. Jonah was living in Gath Hapher, which was about 500 miles from Nineveh. In contrast, Jonah went the other direction, and began a journey of some 2500 miles by land and sea to Tarshish where he thought he could escape this order from God.

We know what happens next. Jonah boards a ship. A violent storm comes up. He is comfortably sleeping deep in the hull of the ship - until one of the crew comes and wakes him up demanding he come up to the deck and explain how he could possibly be sleeping like that in the midst of this crisis. The story comes out - and Jonah gives in. “Throw me in the sea. It is the end I deserve for what I did against God.” Into the sea he goes - and soon, as the story tells us, he is swallowed by a great fish - or whale - or a similar creature.

To me - this is one of the most interesting moments of the story. Because it is here that we experience the awesome love God has for Jonah - even tho he deserved this punishment, even to death death for what he did - God keeps Jonah alive for three days and three nights inside the belly of that beast. And even in that desolated place, God hears the prayers of Jonah as he said:

"I called to the LORD out of my distress, and he answered me; out of the belly of Sheol I cried, and you heard my voice.

How many times in our own lives have we found ourselves somewhere that feels desolate and alone. Someplace that feels void of God. And yet, just like for Jonah, God is with us. God hears our prayers. And more important- God answers our prayers.